By: Adelowo Oladipo, Minna
Media Practitioners (Journalists) in Minna, Niger State and its environs have been urged to focus their attention more on developmental journalism that would bring about strategies to make their practices appreciable to target audience, including interpreting reports to the advantage of the greater percentage of the general public across the country.
According to an expert, journalism has gone beyond mere reportage to serving as authenticator, interpreter or providing explanations that are difficult to the generality of readers or an average minds and as well writing stories with multiple points of views for wider audience.
Prof. Nicholas Iwakwagh of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna stated this in a paper he presented at a one-day capacity building workshop organised by the National Population Commission (NPC) for some selected journalists in Niger State, held at the IBB Pen House, Minna, the state capital on Tuesday.
On the paper theme; “Reporting 2023 Digital National Population and Housing Census connecting facts and figures to national development”, Professor Nicholas explained that effective reporting of the 2023 population and housing census is very necessary as it will give clearer picture to government on even distribution of wealth and statutory allocations.
He stated further that it is also important for journalists to resist being confrontational in carrying out their duties but should rather communicate putting national interest above personal interest above all other interests no matter the provocations to bring about peaceful co-existence across the multi-ethnic nationalities.
Also in a paper titled, “Successful 2023 Population and Housing Census: The Media and Ethical Reporting”, Mallam Bala Galadima of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai (IBBUL) observed that Nigerian journalists are on daily basis come face-to-face with the most difficult working conditions, exposed to risks and threats to lives and never appreciated by the same society.
Galadima, however, pointed out that despite unfavourable working conditions with little or no proper remunerations, journalists in Nigeria have proved their worth by remain resolute to serving the populace with news about their safety even when their safety cannot be guaranteed.
The Head of Technical Unit, Minna office, Mallam Sanusi Yusuf, in his paper, titled, “Digital Census: The implication for Reliability, Accuracy and Acceptability of 2023 Population and Housing Census emphasized that the forthcoming census is different compared to previous ones which according to him, was analogue.
While appealing for the cooperation and support of journalists towards actualising set objectives, Mallam Sanusi said, “27, 000 functionaries/ad-hoc staff would be recruited to serve at various levels towards ensuring successful and generally acceptable exercise.
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